Can't see custom preq in list

[Skane2]

I Opened an existing .msi file and I wanted to add a custom prerequisite to it, so I used the prerequisite editor to create a .prq file, but I don't see it appear in the Redistributables list. Does it have anything to do with being in Direct Edit Mode?

What I'm really trying to do:

We have two install packages created in two visual studio solutions that we must deploy. We'd like to have them install sequentially without the user having to perform two separate installs (we don't necessarily need to have them installed as a single transaction, a la Win Installer 4.5).

So the idea was to import one of the .msi files and make the other a prerequisite. If there's a better way to do it, I'd be interested.

Thanks,
Skane

[mberterm]

Direct Edit mode is the crux of the issue.

Much of the extra-MSI functionality is unavailable in Direct Edit mode.

[DLee65]

I may be wrong here but I believe the contents of the PRQ file have to be compiled into the setup.exe which launches the prerequisite setup. Therefore since the setup.exe is already compiled you cannot add new prerequisites.

[mberterm]

Yes, that's right. The build process brings together the InstallShield extra-MSI functionality, including Prerequisites.

When directly editing your MSI, the intent was to offer a way to open the MSI file for editing of standard MSI tables.

Since InstallShield does not know the source of the MSI file, we cannot assume that it has the supporting IS framework which the build process puts into place.

However to accomplish your goal, you might consider...

• use an InstallScript package as a launch platform to install the 2 child MSI packages
  
• migrate one package from Visual Studio into IS2009 and then use a Prerequisite to launch the other
  
• deploy the 2 MSI packages independently
  

[Skane2]

mberterm wrote:
However to accomplish your goal, you might consider...

• use an InstallScript package as a launch platform to install the 2 child MSI packages
  
• migrate one package from Visual Studio into IS2009 and then use a Prerequisite to launch the other
  
• deploy the 2 MSI packages independently
  

Thanks, mberterm

Can you give me a general idea (or pointers to docs) on how to migrate a package?

Skane

[DebbieL]

Converting Visual Studio projects to InstallShield projects is a new feature of InstallShield 2009. Here's a help topic that explains how:

Converting Visual Studio Projects to InstallShield Projects

I hope that helps.

Debbie Landers
Acresso Software

[Christopher_Pai]

As an aside, Visual Studio Deployment Projects are usually very poorly authored and during beta testing I couldn't get the conversion wizard to do anything particularly useful. YMMV but I would expect to just create a brand new project and wire up the upgrade table to get rid of the old ones.

[mberterm]

From the Help Library article titled, Converting Visual Studio Projects to InstallShield Projects:

To convert a Visual Studio project (.vdprj) to an InstallShield project (.ism):
[LIST=1]

Open InstallShield.

On the File menu, click Open. The Open dialog box opens.

In the Files of type box, select Visual Studio Setup Projects (*.vdprj).

Browse to the location of the Visual Studio project that you want to open, and select the project file.

Click the Open button.

The blurb from the Release Notes is rather high-level.

Ability to Convert Visual Studio Setup and Merge Module Projects to InstallShield Projects
InstallShield now lets you convert a Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio .NET 2003, or Visual Studio .NET setup project (.vdprj) to a Basic MSI project (.ism). In addition, InstallShield enables you to convert a Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio .NET 2003, or Visual Studio .NET merge module project (.vdprj) to an InstallShield Merge Module project (.ism).

Converting these Visual Studio projects to InstallShield projects enables you to modify the layout of dialogs through a visual Dialog Editor, validate your installation packages and merge modules, and use other functionality that is available in InstallShield.

[Skane2]

Thanks to everyone for their insights and information.

Skane